It is estimated that less than one percent of the world's entire water supply is accessible fresh water, which is becoming increasingly stressed. A process called low-energy desalination has been proposed to augment this depleting fresh water supply, without requiring a large amount of energy as by current desalination by reverse osmosis (RO). Low energy desalination by forward osmosis (FO) exploits the natural process of osmosis to draw fresh water from seawater into a very concentrated solution when separated by a semi-permeable membrane. The solute in the concentrated solution is recoverable by various means such as low grade heat, and shift in solution temperature or acidity. The major hindrance in the development of this process is the lack of suitable membranes.
There exists a need for chemically- and thermally-stable materials capable of purifying water via forward osmosis.